A fire Monday morning at an apartment building in Waterville killed a man and left five communities with undrinkable water.
The Waterville firefighters responded to a call on Elm Street at 5:40 a.m. and found smoke visible from the fourth floor upon arrival.
Firefighters performed an aggressive search of the building but found an individual in the unit where the fire started had already died. While evacuating the other residents from the building, firefighters began attacking the fire, NewsCenter Maine reports.
Firefighters injected foam into the building’s standpipes. However, the building did not have a back-flow preventer installed, which resulted in firefighting foam infiltrating the Kennebec Water District system, which serves Waterville, Winslow, Fairfield, Vassalboro, and Benton.
The water district issued a do-not-drink order while it flushed the foam from its system, NewsCenter Maine reports.
